Shofar FTP Archive File: camps/auschwitz/auschwitz.03

Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Mala Zimtebaum - Defiance at Auschwitz
Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Auschwitz,Zimtebaum
Archive/File: camps/auschwitz auschwitz.03
Last-Modified: 1993/08/20
"The self-sacrifice of 24-year old Mala Zimetbaum in 1944 should also be
remembered. She gave courage to the inmates who had been taunted by the SS
on arrival with `from here one leaves only through the chimney.' Polish
born, a refugee in Belgium at the outbreak of W.W. I , Mala had been
deported in 1942, and because she was proficient in languages, was made a runner
(lausferin) by the SS command. She took advantage of the opportunity to move
in relative freedom and carried news and messages from incoming transport to
the camp underground. She planned an escape with a Polish prisoner, stealing
the permit that would be needed to get past the guard. They were absent from
the roll call on the night of the escape, and almost got through the outer
gate but were recognized at they slipped by the last obstacle. Under
torture, Mala refused to reveal accomplices. On the way to the gas chamber
she slashed her wrists with a blade she had stolen from the kitchen. The
guard, infuriated, ordered that she be burnt alive; she responded by crying
out: `Murderers, the day of reckoning is near.' Her mouth was taped and she
was hustled, barely conscious, into the crematorium. After the war, the city
of Antwerp placed a plaque on the house where she had lived that read: `Mala
Zimitbaum, Symbol of Solidarity. Murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz.
1920-1944.' <11>
<11> Gis Weisblum, cited in Yuri Suhl, "They Fought Back," pp. 182-188
Extracted from---------------------------------------------------
"THE REDEMPTION OF THE UNWANTED", Abram L. Sachar (New York: St.
Martin's/Marek, 1983.
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